Echo, Book 2
by Axenome
Summary: Book 2 of Echo: Andrew has finally settled in, when disaster strikes: The twisted, terrible apprenticeship of the Carlyle School of Anything Goes Martial Arts!


Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction Echo Book 2

Prologue: Piledriver

August 14, 1997

Every day, bit by bit, I am growing to fit in here better.

I haven't written a journal entry in my phone in two months; it only holds fifty notes at a time. After a fashion, I feel that this is just as well- my thumbs were starting to get sore at the joints from all the typing into the damned thing. And since there aren't any support towers- still- for it, there really isn't any way for me to email the contents to myself, even if I had an email in this world, which I don't. And in spite of my status as co-owner in the rising financial power Charge Enterprises, LLC, I find I don't have a great deal of interest in getting one- Ranma and I spend too much of our time training for me to waste effort on meaningless web browsing, such as is inevitable even now in '97 when you own an email account. I do not have time to wade through the junk mail in order to find anything I am interested in reading- I never realized how much of my old life was spent dealing with garbage like that.

I am writing and even thinking now almost exclusively in Japanese. The people who live in the area are even seeming to forget that I am not a native Japanese. It cannot be my looks- I look like many things, but Japanese is certainly not one of them, and I'm not remotely built like one either, despite my at best mediocre height. Even despite the fact that I stand out like an idling motorcycle in a maternity ward, the residents here seem to take for granted that I am now an accepted neighbor. Nabiki insists she had nothing to do with this, although she would have if she'd thought of it sooner. But for whatever reason, I am no longer the Gaijin American, but just Andrew san.

While I admit that I am not the most educated student in Japanese culture, I am aware of how lucky I am to have received this manner of welcome from these, my new neighbors. Four months is an incredibly short time for so insular and culturally embedded a people as the Japanese to acclimate themselves to a person of a different culture, and I can hardly credit myself with so powerful a charisma as to account for this. My only belief left to me is that I somehow truly do fit in here. I don't know for certain whether it is that my last life was Japanese, or perhaps my early years in Hawaii are the reason, or even perhaps simply an aspect of the magic of the map I no longer own, but I belong here far more than any place that I have ever known. Considering the oddities of the new ward in which I live, I wonder what that says about me?

--

Andrew hid himself in the dojo, waiting eagerly for a specific sound. He wanted to be sure to hear it, which was why he was here, instead of in the house- also, it was less stressful than further immersion tonight in the constant low level aggravation of the tensions between Nabiki and Xian Pu.

Xian Pu had been something of a rogue agent the last couple of months. Ever since the formal decision of Ko Lohn that she had no official Airen, being that Ranma's defeat occured on the challenge log as a female. Since the defeat as a female could not result in marriage, and his actual status as a male invalidated the Kiss of Death, Ranma was free unles he should later happen to defeat her again in his male body.

Ko Lohn had been reluctant to let Ranma off the hook, until Andrew explained just how badly fated their pairing had been from what Andrew knew. The later revelation of the involvement of Kuonji Ukyo had decided the Amazon elder; the word for word exchange that passed without Andrew's interference had decided the elder on this, and she made her controversial (in the village) ruling that invalidated Ranma as a marital candidate.

Upon further acquaintance with Ryoga, the elder declared on her own cognizance that he was not fit as an airen for Xian Pu in spite of his prowess. His mood was too mercurial and his anger too quick to stir- bad traits even in a lesser male, but in one whose physical prowess was so pronounced as his, it was all the more an unacceptable thing to bring into the village's bloodlines. The official line of course was Ryoga was not her husband because he had been directed into the fight against Xian Pu by a subtle and especially devious ploy whose intent was to prevent Ranma's betrothal to Xian Pu.

Andrew had tied his continuing cooperation with the elder to a final stipulation- that he himself, since he had never personally fought Xian Pu, was not a candidate to marriage with the young Amazon either. She would, of course, be permitted to pursue Andrew, but she would have to convince HIM to marry her, as he would not be tied into her family by any act of violence, no matter how ritualized. He refused, as he'd said, to accept any law of marriage that permitted such an act, even at its beginning, as the practice of violence against any in his house beyond training purposes. A man who'd seen as much violence as Andrew had in its distilled and original, terrible form, would not have it taint his married life in such a way.

Andrew had intended the ultimatum as an opening ploy, to sound out how solid her support in the village on this matter actually was. Her capitulation, without counter demand, said to him that either she had some further craftiness in mind, or else her footing in her arguments with the council were very shaky indeed. Andrew suspected it to be the latter, as, at the time of the action, Andrew had been in his own mind firmly and irrevocably married, regardless of what knowledge came later. And being married, he was also not eligible for the Kiss of Marriage laws, said kiss not being delivered at any time to Andrew in any case.

And Xian Pu had discovered that she was still actually single. All but forbidden by her great grandmother to pursue a relationship with Ryoga, her prospects for a decent husband now in this city seemed to be a choice between Andrew and Ranma. And since Ranma didn't seem interested in any but Akane, along with Andrew's warning as to the likely success of such a campaign, she'd set her sights on Andrew. The stricture against attacking either Andrew to invoke the defeat laws, or against Nabiki to eliminate a rival, she'd found herself in a very difficult position. Andrew had forced her hand into actually getting to know him before any kind of relationship could be formed.

The net result was his ability to converse with two stunningly beautiful girls, both intelligent, both of whom seemed to like him a great deal, and without the burden of being forced- yet- into anything he wasn't really ready for. It was, after all, only two months since he'd been effectively widowed, and he really didn't feel comfortable with the idea of forming a permanent or even a superficial physical relationship with anyone yet- if ever. Even if he did enjoy their company, and there was also the matter that they were both far too young for him.

All in all, Andrew felt that things, while complicated, weren't half bad- until three days ago.

He gave a small grimace at the core reason why he was here instead of enjoying the presence of either of the girls. And reflected that the anime failed to convey the true horror of living under the same roof as Happosai. Andrew had made a single, abortive attempt to defend Nabiki from the attentions of the twisted little lecher; he now had a badly sprained wrist. Tofu had warned him not to strain the wrist for another day or so, and so he was sidelined not only from defending anyone but even from any form of training that involved his hand, including sparring. He'd been so proud of his progress over the short time he'd been here in Nerima, bypassing Akane a month ago and now able to hold his own against Ryoga (Admittedly with a few surprises and tricks that Andrew always kept on his person these days as part of his rapidly developing fighting style) when the fanged boy burst from hiding and declared Andrew to be the new source of all his suffering and loneliness, when the bandanna clad boy wasn't pining over Akane or the now lost attentions of Xian Pu, who- Andrew thought every so often- seemed to wistfully look back.

Andrew had been given a sharp lesson in reality, however, when he'd rashly attempted to stop Happosai from groping Nabiki. And with the level of skill the old man had, not to mention the relatively stupid attempt to catch himself after the throw instead of rolling out of the fall when he landed, a sprained wrist was flat out lucky. But Andrew knew the old fart would get his. He retrained his ears to listen harder- he had particularly high hopes for this bit of petty revenge.

--

Happosai began his rounds, masked and carrying his trademark sack. From house to house he roamed, liberating various bits of underwear and the like, lifting skirts of any unlucky enough to be outside while he passed, and- Looky looky up ahead. Hot dog. Apparently, the house ahead had some terrible event occur to damage their laundry room- still open to the night air while various construction equipment remained scattered about their yard. Whatever had happened to the house, it had been messy, and the family was still living inside the house while it was being repaired. And the newly hung clothesline seemed to have more lingerie than a Victoria's Secret catalogue.

--

Andrew had paid the family involved in the trap quite a bit of money, over and above the repair costs after the fight with Ryoga that resulted in the mess of their side room. And if this worked, Andrew knew it would be worth every yen he'd paid for it. And the hardest part hadn't been convincing them to part with their underwear. No, the hardest part had been...

--

Happosai leaped forward, snagging every bra and panty in a single swipe. The last one hung up on the clothesline, and instead of coming free, the clothesline had come down with him, tangling him in two dozen or so pairs of panties and bras. He heard a loud, steamlike hissing, and he'd pulled a pair of panties from over his eyes just in time to see a massive piston of metal the width of a telephone pole strike horizontally, driving him into a wall.

--

... getting that damned piledriver tilted over on its side at just the appropriate angle to hit someone coming down from a leap at the high strung tripwire with its silky bait. Andrew heard the noise, a distant roar of steam followed by a heavy crash of destroyed masonry, and allowed himself a single, vicious smile.

--

Happosai staggered into the doorway, battered and covered in a fine dust of that particular shade of red that comes from pulverized brick. The surprise at his condition was almost universal- save for on the face of Andrew. Happosai looked him in the eye, then down at his own dislocated shoulder. Andrew shifted his left arm slightly, resting his right hand over the bandage on his wrist almost as an afterthought. Instead of the message Happosai knew it had been.

"Y-you!" Happosai said in whispered outrage. "You tried to kill me!"

Genma and Soun shivered from head to toe, then each grabbed on of Andrew's arms. "We'll evict him immediately, master!" Said Soun.

"Yes, how dare he treat you so, master!" Genma replied.

"Pfft." Andrew scoffed, pulling his hands free of their barely resisting grasp. "That was a warning shot. If the twelve pounds of dynamite and the eight ton boulder you two used didn't do the job, a single swipe against a brick wall wouldn't even muss his hair."

The two fathers went white and boneless at the calm revelation, falling to their knees and begging for forgiveness, but Happosai's anger suddenly deflated. He popped his shoulder back into place, before calmly pulling out his pipe and stuffing it with tobacco. He lit it with a match, puffed once, and then said, "These two louts taught you all this?"

Andrew snorted. "Hardly. If you lived where I came from, you learned to think on your feet. And you never, ever let someone get in a free shot without a reprisal."

Happosai shook his head with a withered smile. "Don't evict him, boys- After all, it's so rare for me to find a worthy pupil of the Anything Goes school, it'd be a shame to waste a potential student like that."

End Prologue

--

A new book, a new set of trouble. Don't be angry with me that I jumped so far ahead- point of fact, I only travel where my muse takes me, and if I'd continued on to fill out the intervening time, it would have been much of the same old same old. This is where things start to become significant for Andrew, I think, where he comes into his own as the focus of the madhouse that is Nerima.

Now, I can hear the complaints already- "How can Andrew possibly fight Ryoga? Breaking point, monster strength, (insert Ryoga fact here)..." OK this is NOT the Ryoga you are looking for. Move along. Uh, nevermind that. The Ryoga you are used to has personally trained under Cologne (Or Ko Lohn, wtvr) and learned amazon techniques and so forth. Plus he has fought Ranma innumerable times. This Ryoga, however, has not been able to absorb Ranma's fighting style.

Curse aside, Andrew is responsible now for the alienation of two beautiful young girls that Ryoga has come to like a great deal. Ryoga never had the guts to follow through with Shampoo, until it was too late, and now she's forbidden from associating with him by Cologne. If she won't allow Ryoga to marry her great grand daughter, why would she train him in anything that might potentially make him more dangerous? Especially considering that she has plans to bring Andrew back to the village, and that Andrew is barely capable of holding his own with the Umbrella boy as it is. Shampoo can't talk with him or date him, add in the fact that Andrew is the reason that Akane hates him, and Ryoga has someone who is even more a natural nemesis for him than Ranma. Ranma's actions could be brushed off as stupidity, but in Ryoga's eyes the series of events could have occured only with intent on Andrew's part. Likewise, as he does not have the physical prowess of Ranma, Ryoga is instead working out his wits, gaining an increase to his mental prowess. Pity for Andrew that he isn't going to be able to prevent Ryoga from getting a hold on the scroll for the Shi Shi Hokodan.

Coming up: Happosai- How much do we know about him? Who are his family? And who says he's all that bad anyhow? All this and more, in Chapter One of Echo, Book 2: Ancient!

See you soon!

-AXENOME


End file.
